Sunflower
by isamags2
Summary: "Hey." Will flashed him a glistening, white smile. "Uh… Hi." Nico mentally smacked himself. He decided to blame his lameness on the distracting, intensely blue hue of Will's eyes. /OR, where Nico wants to show Will something, but it doesn't really go as planned... Hints of Solangelo. One-shot. Rated T because I'm paranoid.


**Disclaimer: I don't own anything (except the sunwater), Rick Riordan does.**

Sunflower

Nico hesitated, looked at the black walls of the Hades cabin from where he was sitting. Maybe he shouldn't do this. It could go wrong in so many possible ways that he had lost count of it. Similar to the idea of letting Percy swim in the river Styx, it had seemed perfect at first, like: _Hey, if Percy practically gets invulnerable, there might be a tiny, tiny bit more chance that the apocalypse doesn't do what it is supposed to do! There is just that small detail; maybe he won't survive the dip in Styx…_

Now that Nico thought back on it, it was pretty ironical that a son of Poseidon could drown.

(Children of Hades did seem to have a morbid taste of humor.)

Nico took a deep breath and tried to persuade himself to believe that he wasn't going to melt into a shadow doing what he was about to do.

"It's okay, I did drink the sunwater with a bit of ambrosia and nectar, and I did make offerings to Father. So all is cool" he whispered. He ignored that the whispering more sounded like a hissing of a dying person. _This is called being positive, huh?_ Nico thought to himself. _Right._

It was just that it ticked him off (not in a dangerous way, more in a competitive I'll-show-you-how-it's-done kind of way) to be following these stupid "Doctor's orders". Though it was nice that at least _somebody_ who was a normal camper cared about his health, well, maybe a _bit_ more than that… (The ghost of a blush settled on Nico's face at this point), he still wanted to show that he was independent and could take care of himself. He was the son of Hades, for the Gods' sake! He wasn't going to be babied around, especially not by a certain son of Apollo.

So the plan ran along something like this:

After one week of no fun, drinking sunwater (sunwater was a warm shining liquid, used to heal people who were unhealthily close to darkness. Which in Nico's case was more like _deadly_ close) and eating small amounts of ambrosia and nectar, he felt stronger than ever. His skin had slowly begun turning into a more olive hue, and his dark hair got glossier (probably some effects that Apollo had added, the sunwater was his creation after all). The tiredness that sometimes overwhelmed him, had come more seldom, and now he even wished for life rather than death. Nico was becoming more human, and less shadow-y.

Which, of course he was grateful for, but without his powers, he felt stripped of his identity, like he was nothing more than a kid who had lost his sis-

 _Stop._

Nico took a shaky breath, reminding himself that he wasn't alone, that he had Hazel, Reyna, Coach Hedge and the Seven. Maybe he could even count on Will… It was just, sometimes time doesn't heal wounds properly, or maybe Nico was an exception, but every time he woke up drenched in sweat from another nightmare, the wound of Bianca's death flaked up again. And again.

 _Don't think about that now, you have to concentrate on what you're supposed to do now._

So, one more time, the plan was like this:

After taking very precarious preparations so that (hopefully) he wouldn't melt into a shadow forever, he would meet up with Will (suddenly Nico felt the blood flush his face) and show him, that no matter what, Nico would still be able to summon a couple of old friends (zombies) from the earth. One week _before_ the puny "Doctor's Orders" said he could start to _try_ doing some dark stuff. Nico didn't really know why he made such a fuss of showing everybody, especially Will, why he was stronger than they thought he was, did he want to brag? Or did he want to show off?

He didn't really know, there was just some sort of instinct of heart that told him to do so. And _no_ , he wasn't going all Frank with voices inside his head (Frank had told Hazel who had told Nico). Hopefully.

From where he was, Nico threw a lazy look at the clock that read 4 p.m.

" _Schist!_ " Nico sprang up from the armchair and rushed out from the gloomy Hades cabin. He was supposed to see Will now, at the backside of Half-blood Hill. Nico ran fast and sick-sacked through confused-looking campers.

"Hallo, Nico, where are you go-"

"No time to explain Jason!"

He would tell Jason later, but for now, Will was the most urgent priority. Nico settled into a quick jog, taking in and for the first time actually appreciating the beauty of Camp Half-blood. The sun was shining down on laughing demi-gods, shouts could be heard from the training area, the soft fragrance of strawberries wafted through the camp… all while Nico's shoes trampled the soft green grass. Before he knew it, Half-blood Hill was right in front of him. Nico stopped, suddenly dead in his tracks. What if Will wouldn't be there, around the corner? What if he had decided not to see Nico anymore? With his heart palpitating, Nico rounded the hill.

He didn't know when the relief flooded him, because all he could do was stand still and just gawk at the perfection in front of him. There he was, Will Solace, or maybe more accurately, Will; the most stunning creation on earth. He was dressed in a pair of khaki shorts, a pair of simple sandals and the Camp Halfblood t-shirt, the orange standing out against his tan skin.

"Hey." Will flashed him a glistening, white smile.

"Uh… Hi." Nico mentally smacked himself. _Uh…hi?!_ _Really._ He decided to blame his lameness on the distracting, intensely blue hue of Will's eyes, which could probably compete with the sky.

"So… What did you want to show me?"

Nico was sure he could almost touch the heavy awkwardness.

"Um, right. I, uh, I just…" Nico's heart hammered in his chest. "You know what? I'm just going to show you directly."

"Not a man of words, are you?" Will chuckled.

Nico mumbled something incoherently. He took a deep breath, relaxing his whole being, and Will's expression turned serious.

"You are not-", but his voice drowned in millions of other, despairing voices. Voices of lost souls, long since forgotten, praying, calling, clawing at his soul for mercy. Nico felt himself tumbling, falling through blackness and dim shadows of evil creatures, children of Tartarus himself… Life was for nothing, everything that had ever mattered to him turned to dust. All of his purposes, gone. Gone.

 _No._

This wasn't like other times, no, they couldn't trick him into to dying again. Nico had a life that he loved, with persons that he adored. He. Was. Not. Going. To. Fail. He was in control, he was the king of ghosts. Something tugged in his stomach, and he knew that whatever he had fulfilled in summoning, was going with him up to the surface. Nico willed himself to return, and suddenly, he was standing again, beside Will, with shaky legs, but standing. Nico gasped for oxygen, as if he had just been drowning. He didn't know for how long he had been gone, but apparently only a couple of seconds, although it had felt like an eternity. Will was just finishing his sentence.

"… I swear, if you even try to use your powers, they will- Hey! What's the matter?" Will put a hand on the back of Nico's back. "Are you okay? Should I call for help?" Nico looked into the worried face of Will, and felt warmth spreading from his back to every little cell in his body.

"No… It's alright… I'm fine"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, really, I'm perfectly fine."

"Okay" Will patted Nico on the back, his blue eyes never leaving Nico's for a second. Will retracted his hand, just a shade redder in his face. Nico felt a little cold on his back.

"Soooo… What were you going to show me?"

Nico was taken aback. He had totally forgotten that! He turned around, expecting at least one or two zombies standing there, with drool seeping from their mouths. Instead he found a… What was it exactly? It was obviously dying, and made of bones and-

 _Oh gods._

It. Was. A. Flower. A freaking flower. How in Hades could there be a dying flower made out of bones on a dry patch of grass, where it should've been something more… Darker? Intimidating? Whatever but a flower?

Nico mentally face palmed. He had already planned out that he was moving to Alaska, where no-one would recognize him, when he heard Will laughing behind him.

Nope, Nico was moving to the Arctic.

"Is that a… flower?" Will gasped for air in between his laughs. "That's so cute!"

Nico could probably stay here for all eternity, because he had just done a thing that Will Solace thought was cute.

As if realizing what he had just said, Will stopped laughing abruptly. "I mean, it's uh, it's… I think it is a sunflower… and I like sunflowers, because, y'know…" he trailed of, unsure of what to say. Both of the half-bloods were blushing.

"As long as you don't mention it to anyone Solace".

 **Author's Note: Hi! This is the first story I have published on this site, what did you think? This one-shot has not been beta'd, so all mistakes are mine. Sunflower probably won't be the last thing I publish here, let me know if you have any idea for a one-shot! This is pretty exciting, but have patience with me, because my English isn't the best, I'm from northern Europe... Heheh XD Anyway, please leave a review, constructive criticism is always welcome!**

 **See you,**

 **-A happy writer**


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